Electric BMW M3 reveals its pumped-up wheel-arches

The first-ever BMW M3 EV has been spied on the street with more of its production body on show.

It’s been clear for a while now the electric 3 Series – possibly badged i3 – and its M3 spin-off will wear styling based closely on the 2023 Vision Neue Klasse concept.

Like the concept, the production i3/M3 has a long, flat bonnet and boot lid, as well as low belt line. Up front there’s a wide double kidney grille that blends seamlessly into the headlights.

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At the back a strip of tail-lights lives high up near the boot lid. Unfortunately this car still isn’t wearing production-ready lighting units.

In the translation to production, the side windows have grown a little deeper and gained frames.

Unlike the prototype spied at the beginning of the year, which had a circular disguise pattern on the fenders, we can now properly see bulging wheel-arches that will be exclusive to the M3. Naturally, the fatter fenders house the car’s chunkier rubber and wider track.

Our spy photography agency says this prototype was wearing 20-inch alloy wheels with 275/35 Michelin tyres at the front, and 295/35 rubber at the rear.

The agency was also able to zoom in a bit to the interior, where we can see the dashboard features a large central touchscreen, but intriguingly no instrumentation panel directly ahead of the driver.

That’s because the production i3/M3 will use the new Panoramic iDrive system, which features a pillar-to-pillar digital display at the base of the windscreen for the instruments, compass, media, climate control, and other items.

It’s understood the M3 will have an electric motor for each wheel, and generate around 746kW in total or 1000hp in the old money.

In order to entice performance heads over to the M3 EV, it will likely be quicker to 100km/h than today’s 3.0-litre twin-turbo straight-six-powered M3 CS, which requires 3.4 seconds to bring up the century.

Under the skin, the new i3/M3 will use BMW’s Neue Klasse EV architecture. The first car based on the platform will be the next-generation iX3 mid-size electric SUV, which is expected to debut some time this year. This will be followed by the i3 in 2026, and the M3 should follow in either 2027 or 2028.

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